JC / Railbird

The Price of Greed

Yearling prices and syndication deals have changed the game and made winning the Triple Crown harder, not easier, Lowell Sun racing correspondent Paul Daley writes in this week’s Sun column, reprinted with permission here.
The past few days we’ve witnessed two notable defections from the Kentucky Derby Trail. First, two-year-old Eclipse Award winner Stevie Wonderboy suffered a hairline condylar fracture to his right front ankle on Monday morning, necessitating at least a 90-day absence from the racing wars. Then, on Tuesday, trainer Patrick Byrne declared Arlington Washington Futurity winner, Sorcerer’s Stone, out of the Triple Crown due to small ankle chips.
Thus, the Derby jinx lives for at least another year. Spectacular Bid, in 1978, remains the last two-year-old champion to win the Kentucky Derby the following year. Why, 14 of the last 27 champion two-year-olds never even made it into the Derby starting gate.
Additionally, $60,150 in Churchill Downs Pool 1 of the Kentucky Derby Futures Bet is now down the drain faster than you can say flush. Sorcerer’s Stone finished Pool 1 at 30-1 odds, accounting for only $9,982 in wagers. However, Stevie Wonderboy was the second wagering choice in Pool 1, garnering $50,168 of the action while the mutuel field led the way at 3-1 with $115,000 wagered. At least with the field, if you lose a horse you still have over 400 others as a backup. Not so with the Eclipse Award winner, who will now be pointed for a late summer campaign leading to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, according to owner Merv Griffin. How appropriately ironic that two of the game shows he devised are Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.

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Posted in Triple Crown on February 13, 2006

The Questions Begin

Now that the thrill of Saturday has passed and Afleet Alex has established himself as a most superior horse, the question of how he failed to become the first Triple Crown winner in 27 years is coming to the fore. “How did the colt who is clearly the best runner in his generation fail to win the 2005 Triple Crown?,” asks Rick Bozich (Courier-Journal). Bill Finley answers: “The only possible answer? It’s just a very, very hard thing to do” (ESPN). Expect this conversation to continue for years as people debate whether it was the jockey or the pace that cost Alex the Kentucky Derby.
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Trainer Tim Ritchey said “at least 15 breeding farms have inquired about Afleet Alex,” but that if an interest in the colt is sold it would be only for breeding and wouldn’t interfere with Ritchey’s racing plans (LA Times). The owners are “adamant” about seeing Alex run as a four-year-old. Cash Is King managing partner Chuck Zacney told Boston Globe reporter Ron Indrisano, “We never got into this for the money. I think he’s going to get better with age. We’re so attracted to Alex, and there are so many people attracted to this horse, that I’d hate to see an end to the trip. At the end of October, after the Breeders’ Cup [Oct. 29 at Belmont], if all goes well, I think we’ll probably start entertaining offers. But I don’t see anything before that.” I want to believe. Keeping the amazing Alex in training would be great for the sport, and there’s no reason to doubt the sincerity of Zacney or Ritchey, but:

There’s been a parade of breeders lining up to swipe Afleet Alex faster than he stormed through that opening Saturday. Take WinStar Farm’s Doug Cauthen, who was headed to Belmont Park late Thursday see to Afleet Alex. When Cauthen’s flight was canceled, he jumped in a rental car and drove all night.

Around the barn, figures in the millions to syndicate Afleet Alex are being tossed about. In a matter of minutes, it’s clear those are ridiculous numbers, because the next set of numbers you hear are much, much larger.

“It really is out of our hands,” [Afleet Alex co-owner Bob] Brittingham said. “I don’t know. I’d like to see him run till he’s 5, 6, 7. At least through 4 years, just because he’s that good and I know he likes to run, and I’d like to see him run against some of my heroes that are still out there — Ghostzapper, Lost in the Fog. I’d love to see that.”

Pause.

“I don’t know if we actually get to make that decision.” (Palm Beach Post)

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Speaking of Ritchey, it’s time to heap praise upon him for the unconventional training regimen he devised for Afleet Alex. Sending the colt out to the track twice a day to jog and/or gallop up to five miles worked wonders. “If [Ritchey] doesn’t win the Eclipse Award for his skill, creativity, patience and graciousness, I’ll be surprised,” writes Ray Kerrison in the New York Post. “Ritchey made absolutely sure to maximize the colt’s potential by having him so physically fit that he was able to run the final 440 yards of the Belmont Stakes as if he was going downhill,” says Dick Jerardi, reporting that Ritchey looked to the 1970s for inspiration:

“I had a conversation with Ron Turcotte that was pretty interesting,” Ritchey said. “He said Secretariat galloped 3 miles many days. I know how those older trainers trained. I’ve been a student of the game.

“I’ve always thought if I got this opportunity, I’m not going to have a horse that’s going to run a mile-and-a-half that’s only going to train a mile-and-a-half. It logically doesn’t make sense.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Can there be any question that it was the hard training — combined with a rigorous racing schedule — that made Afleet Alex so athletic in the Preakness and so dominant in the Belmont?
The Sunday New York Times ran an oddly-placed lament on the decline of stamina horses in American racing. The article’s premise — that there was no Triple Crown this year because horses are bred for speed, not staying — didn’t make much sense in light of Alex’s Belmont win. Here was a horse with a pedigree that didn’t suggest he’d get the mile and a half distance with the ease that he did. Yet Alex won by seven lengths after running the fastest final quarter since 1969. It makes me wonder — is the problem that horses are no longer bred for stamina, or that they’re no longer trained for stamina? I’d lean toward the latter.

Posted in Triple Crown on June 13, 2005

Triple Crown Archive

“A Tremendous Machine”

The Price of Greed

The Questions Begin